Heightened DUI enforcement planned for St. Patrick’s Day

The Turlock Police Department is warning people out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day to not rely on the luck of the Irish to get them home if they’ve been drinking.

The department will be leading the Avoid the 12 task force in their search for drunken drivers.

The Avoid the 12 DUI task force will deploy additional DUI Roving Saturation Patrols into the cities of Turlock, Modesto, Oakdale, and Ceres on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in an ongoing campaign to take careless, dangerous drunk or “buzzed” drivers off the road before they crash.

“Whether you are meeting a few friends at the local pub after work or attending a house party, if you plan on drinking, never drive while impaired – and never let your friends drive if you think they are impaired. Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk,” said Sgt. Neil Cervenka.

The extra Avoid DUI Saturation patrols will be supplementing regularly scheduled shift deployments planned for Thursday.The specialized DUI Officers will be focusing in areas with high incidents of DUI collisions and arrests.